Hello lovelies,
I know it has been a while since I have posted anything. 2020, as all of you are acutely aware, was rather chaotic and not necessarily conducive to maintaining this blog, or anything else for that matter. I was hit with some inspiration recently, and I have decided to do deck reviews to keep this blog updated with articles for all of you wonderful people. I will also be posting meditations, spells, card spreads, and many other articles as well all relating to magical and spiritual practices as a way to keep things updated and going.
I hope you will find these reviews helpful and fun. Please leave a comment or send an email through the Contact Us page if you have any suggestions for a deck you would like to see reviewed or any other articles you would like to see in the future. Without further ado:
The Tarot of the Divine by Yoshi Yoshitani (published by Clarkson Potter) a Review:
I have to say, when this deck came out and my coworker purchased it, I was so happy she allowed us all to look through it. I was blown away by the artwork as well as the stories that had been chosen for each card. This is one of the most multicultural decks I have seen and I am beyond glad to see it in the world.
Overall this deck is not only beautiful, but the amount of painstaking research that went into the making of it is clear and I am glad for it. On the surface, many decks are quite beautiful but lack substance for the actual cards and their meanings. I have rated this deck based on a number of criteria on a scale of 0 – 10 with the average for all criteria being the overall score of the deck.
The first criteria I looked at was the box, this included ease of card removal, design of the box – colour theory, cards chosen, description of deck, etc – sturdiness of the box, and the way in which it opens. Concerning the box, I give this an 8.5 out of 10.
First and foremost, the box is well constructed and sturdy, but it still has some give which makes it easy to handle but it is by no means flimsy. It is similar to a hinge box, which is my personal favorite style of box due to the ease of opening and closing. The only downside to this aspect of the box is the fact that there are no magnets to help keep the box closed, so I took a point off for that.
The card chosen for the front of the box is the Moon card. It is a beautiful card full of dark blues and greens, offset by the red bridge and flowers. This is complemented with a shade of deep blue with metallic embellishment not only around the card, but on the exterior as well, framing the name of the deck as well as the short description on the front cover. The back of the box shows two more major arcana cards, the High Priestess and the Lovers, both cards are complemented by the dark blue of the box and are excellent examples of what the rest of the artwork looks like. It has a short description of some of the fables and myths held within the deck as well as an enticingly vague statement about “lesser-known legends” that I found to be an invitation to see what other stories are waiting to be discovered, or rediscovered by whomever purchases the deck.
The interior of the box is where it lost half a point. Upon opening the box there is a nice cut out area for the cards to nestle in when not in use. This cut out area has a ribbon to make card removal easier, as well as the removal of the guidebook. The ribbon works perfectly for the cards, but it is a bit short when it comes to the guidebook. A minor inconvenience to be sure, which is why I only docked half a point. Other than that the box is fantastic.
The next thing to look at is the guidebook. I give it a 9.5 out of 10, and only because I wish the paper used for the cover was just a tad thicker.
The guidebook included with the deck is an important piece to any deck, but this deck in particular. It is made out of a stiffer grade of paper for the cover with traditional paper used for the pages. It mimics the cover art on the box, though the colours are all different shades of blue and the main image is missing from the foreground. Upon reading the guidebook you will find a quick-guide to the cards and the suits, as well as an area on some different spreads to use, and how to read the cards. After all of that you will find full colour pictures of each card, the name of the story that is portrayed on the card, where the story originates from, a brief summary of the card’s meaning, and some keywords for both upright and reverse meanings. There are two cards per page, which does limit how much of the story can be conveyed, it is nevertheless impressive to see the amount of thought and planning that went into the layout of the guidebook. I would have no qualms recommending this to someone new to tarot even if it is not exactly a card-for-card traditional deck due to the ease with which the book can be used.
Last but not least by any means are the cards themselves. When looking at the criteria I gave myself for this task I chose to look at the following in order to judge the cards: the stock used, the size, colour and image clarity, and ease of shuffling. Again this deck scored rather high with only a few minor issues. Overall, the cards get a 9 out of 10.
First let’s talk about the cardstock used for this deck; while it isn’t the thickest cardstock out there it is still rather high quality with an almost canvas like texture to it. I will say, cardstock and ease of shuffling are inextricably linked, if the cardstock is too flimsy, you run the risk of bending, folding, or even tearing your cards, if the cardstock is too thick it becomes difficult to shuffle at all. This is where the cards lose half a point, the cardstock is great in terms of how it displays the artwork, but it is slightly on the thin side. When shuffling the cards in the traditional “riffle” style they seem to have a tendency to bend and not want to lay flat anymore. There is a fix to this issue, and that is to “riffle” shuffle them both facedown and faceup, or to use a different method like an “overhand” shuffle, or a “Faro” shuffle, as these don’t require bending the cards.
The next item to look at is the size of the cards. To be exact the cards are 4.75 inches long and 2.5 inches wide (12.1 centimeters long and 7 centimeters wide). Now, I am on the shorter side, and as such my hands are smaller than most. I find that card size is important to me as that can also have an impact on my ability to shuffle the cards successfully. I only took half a point off on this because I know my hands are smaller and these cards do fit in my hands, but they are a bit difficult for me to shuffle in a way that won’t cause warping on the cards or cause the cards to fly right out of my hand mid-shuffle. Another coworker of mine who has larger hands did inform me that the cards still have a tendency to cut into her fingers as she does an overhand shuffle, which after a long enough period of time is a bit painful. Overall though, these cards are fairly easy to use in terms of shuffling once you get used to them.
The last criteria I looked at was the artwork on the cards, which includes the image clarity and colour. I love this artwork. The colours are bold and strong, with plenty of darker colours thrown in to add depth to the images. The images are not too cluttered but are still full of references to the story that is portrayed on the card to make it easier to read overall. The linework is thin but sharp, making it easy to see every detail on the cards without anything getting lost in the background or foreground. This is a deck that allows darkness to come through with the light not only in terms of the colour palette chosen, but also in the way the artwork tells the story of each card so beautifully.
With all of the criteria totalled up and averaged, this deck gets a solid 9 out of 10 from me. Even with some of the issues I found while rating it, it is still a top notch deck worth looking into by beginners and experts alike. The artwork is stunning, the work that went into picking stories for the cards is incredible and makes this deck even more intuitive as you get to recognize the stories on each of them. Nothing is too frightening, making it a good deck for people who wish to learn tarot but are intimidated by the Devil or Death cards in other more traditional decks, as well as reading for people who might be nervous if those cards come up in a reading. Kudos to Yoshi Yoshitani for making such a beautiful deck of cards with such meaning and thought behind them, I can’t wait to see what else she might be inspired to do in the future.
Blessings from the Cards,
~ A
Salem's House 
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